Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.Background: South Africa's key political figures attended commemorative rallies thoughout the country on Wednesday (June 16) to mark the 17th anniversary of the Soweto massacre.

In Vosloosrus, east of Johannesburg, the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party commemorated the uprising at a rally addressed by Inkatha youth brigade leader Peter Mokaba.

African National Congress (ANC) president Nelson Mandela told a crowd of thousands at a rally at the Orlando stadium in Soweto that the time had come to extend the hand of friendship and build a nation. But he said if violence was used, they would need to fight.

In Soweto's Jabulani stadium, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) held a meeting attended by about 10,000 people. Soweto was also the scene for a memorial service for Hector Peterson, the first child victim of the uprising.

Also on Wednesday, Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, said he and his allies demanded full debate on whether South Africa should be a federation or a unitary state.

Buthelezi's Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and its black and white conservative allies staged a temporary walkout of democracy talks on Tuesday saying they believe negotiators are obstructing demands for a federal system.

African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Cyril Ramaphosa described the move as an attempt to buy time on a merely procedural issue.

The 20 remaining groups, including the government, passed a resolution recommending the country's first all-race election be held on April 27 next year About a dozen white right-wingers, some dressed in military uniforms, staged a demonstration outside the negotiators' venue, opposed to the setting of an election date.

More than 250 school children were killed and about 25O injured by government troops in the Soweto protest of June 16, 1976, against government plans to enforce Afrikaans as the language for instruction in black schools.